Epeisodion 1
SHEPHERD.
Ho, Master! Enter HECTOR from tent.
I would it ofttimes were my luck to share
As goodly news with thee as now I bear.
265
HECTOR.
What dulness hangs about these shepherds! Block,P. 16, 1. 267. Hector is as bluff and hasty here as he is impulsively obstinate in 1. 319 ff., p. 19, impulsively frank to Rhesus in 1. 393 ff., p. 23, and splendidly courteous under the gibes of the wounded charioteer, 1. 856 ff., p. 47. A fine stage character, if not a very subtle study.
Com’st thou to us with tidings of thy flock
Here in the field in arms? Who wants thee here?
Thou know’st my house; thou know’st my father’s.
Tell all about thy lucky lambs.—Now go.
270
SHEPHERD.
Dull wits, we shepherds! Aye, ’twas alway so.
Yet still, there is some good news to be told.
HECTOR.
A truce there to thy gossip of the fold!
Our dealings are of war, of sword and spear.
SHEPHERD.
Aye; so were mine. That is what brought me here.
275
A chief comes yonder, leading a great band
Of spears, with help to thee and all the land.
HECTOR.
From whence? How do his name and lineage run?
SHEPHERD.
He comes from Thrace, the River Strymon’s son.
HECTOR.
Rhesus! Not Rhesus, here on Trojan soil?
280
SHEPHERD.
Thou hast guessed. That eases me of half my toil.
HECTOR.
What makes he there towards Ida? All astray
Thus from the plain and the broad waggon-way!
SHEPHERD.
I know not rightly, though one well may guess.P. 17, l. 284 ff. The description of the march of the mountaineers, the vast crowd, the noise, the mixture of all arms, suggests personal observation. A great many fifth-century Athenians had probably served some time or other in Thrace.
’Tis hard to land at night, with such a press
285
Of spears, on a strange coast, where rumours tell
Of foes through all the plain-land. We that dwell
On Ida, in the rock, Troy’s ancient root
And hearth-stone, were well frighted, through the mute
And wolfish thickets thus to hear him break.
A great and rushing noise those Thracians make,
290
